10 steps to help your child stay creative

In this TED talk by Ken Robinson you’ll learn:

– ” All kids have tremendous talents and we squander them.”

– Creativity is as important as literacy

– Be sure to at least listen to 4:15 mins so that you can find out what God looks like.

– Kids will take a chance, they’re not afraid to being wrong

– If you’re not prepared to be wrong you’ll never be creative

– We don’t grow into creativity, we get educated out of it

10 Ways to help your child stay creative

1. Talk about why rules exist and which ones to break

children and students need to understand the reasons behind the rules.  have conversations about what the rules are, and why they exist both at home and at school.( this is likely to be a challenge, as there are a lot that don’t make sense)

rules and their relationship to creativity: to be creative your child is going to have push boundaries, solve problems and ask questions, in order to do this well, they need to understand what rules shouldn’t be pushed or broken, and what rules can be ignored. they’re going to need to learn how to play the system.

 

2. limit their time on the phone and computer.

why? well, there are a lot reasons, but constant checking inhibits daydreaming and getting into the flow state, both are important to coming up with creative ideas

 

3. allow/ encourage them to explore, and make mistakes.

while it can be hard not to jump in and redirect to ensure that your child gets the right answer, sometimes you need to allow them to fail, and problem solve through the failure.

one of my friends has a young son, who wants to be a construction worker. he dresses in the full uniform, hard hat and all. his construction site is located in their back yard, where he has successfully created a giant mud pit. it’s not pretty, i can only imagine how messy he is most days when he returns from working in his mud pit. however the exploration that his parents are allowing him, is priceless. he’s dreaming, imagining, building and solving problems. this in of itself makes that mud hole look like the most beautiful masterpiece.

4. don’t give them everything that they want

last week i was spending some time with my parents and we began reflecting on the cell phone  ( i’m not sure you can actually call it that) that i had in high school. our parents were never much for making purchases to help my brother and i fit in with the latest trends.

cell phones started to become popular and common place while i was in high school. all of my friends had one, and all were smaller than an index card. mine on the other hand could be better compared to carrying around a brick. it was, bulky, and was only allowed to be used in the case of an emergency. my friends were thrilled if for some reason i needed to pull out the giant phone, flip down the mouth piece and call my parents, so thrilled that they never offered to let me borrow their phone. and because needing a ride home from school or sports practice was not viewed as an emergency ( meaning i better not use my giant phone) i would call my dad collect, when it asked for me to state my name, i would say, ” dad i need a ride home from school”, he would then reject the call. leaving me to assume that he was on his way.

my brother and learned as we were growing up that we didn’t need all of the latest gagets to survive or even to fit in. if we really wanted them, then we needed to figure out at way to afford them on our own. creative people rarely, fit in. they’re not hanging out or following the crowd, they’re on the edges, where it’s uncomfortable. the sooner that your children learn to hang out on the edges the better.

5. limit phrases like:

” i don’t know how to draw.”

” i’m not creative”

while you might feel this way, when kids hear this enough they begin to adopt those phrases as well. the reason that you aren’t a great drawer is because over and over you said that you couldn’t and eventually you began to believe that. you also never practiced. artists are not good at their art or their craft simply because, they are good because they practice all of the time. trust me, if you saw me weaving for the first time, you would have told me that i didn’t know how to weave, and that was the truth, i didn’t. but after hours and years of practice i make it look simple.

 

6. create a space where they can be creative

designate a creative space for them where they can make messes and explore, this is especially important if you’re super neat. i’ve watched parents attempt to allow their child to be creative, then they go and tell them that they’re holding the brush wrong, they shouldn’t paint with the fingers, and ask the child to identify everything that they just painted. then the child spills the water and it’s all over.

let them explore, there’s a time and place to help them understand how to hold the brush, but it isn’t now, and i’m going to go out on a limb and ask what makes you so sure that you know how to hold the brush? if you want to talk to them about their painting, simply ask them to tell you about, but don’t try to identify the objects ( they might not be anything real) by asking to have each object named with something that actually exists, you’re limiting their imagination. remember everything that now exists at one point was only a crazy thought without a name in someone’s head.

at some point in my childhood, i discovered that one could melt crayons on light bulbs ( i loved melting things) i loved watching the colored wax melt, and seeing the lightbulb change colors. at the time, it seemed like a logical thing to do , and as an adult i assumed everyone had this experience as a child ( i’ve been told that’s not true) it turns out there aren’t many parents that allow their children to melt crayons on lightbulbs. ( my parents limited my melting to my desk light)

7. ask questions more than you give answers

this isn’t easy, and it will test your patience, but it’s important. if your child asks you if something looks right, don’t give a yes or no, instead respond, do you think that it looks right? or what do you like best about it? what don’t you like about? this will keep the conversation going, and much more learning will take place.

8. let them get the answer wrong

my parents were pretty good about letting me do my own thing. one year for an english project i decided that i needed to make a 3D mockingbird as part of a book report on To Kill a Mockingbird. I pulled out the chicken wire and paper mache and went for it. the bird just got bigger and bigger, it was to be hung on a bulletin board, there was no way that this was going to happen. i’m sure that as my parents watched me, they knew that this wasn’t going to work, but that let me go, in fact the only time  they helped , was when i discovered that i’d built the giant mockingbird with a live mouse trapped inside. at this point my dad had to step and do some surgery to let the mouse free.

had they tried to redirect my giant bird making project the finished product may have turned out better, however i learned much more by having to problem solve on my own.

9. encourage independence

if they’re going to remain creative, independence is a must. they’ll need to learn how to go against the herd.

10. avoid coloring books and paint by number

if kids are never give either they’ll be just as happy with a blank piece of paper and they’ll begin to explore drawing and creating what they see around them. coloring books also teach children symbols instead of them learning to see how things really look. if you’re already using coloring books, don’t panic, it’s not the end of the world. try to slowly fade them out and just replace them with blank sheets of paper.